Happy birthday Canada!

While a little belated the sentiment is still there. Canada, you turned 145 years old on July 1st and you continue to grow more and more beautiful with each passing year. I'm so fortunate to call you home.

Canada Day long weekend was about friends and family ~ time in Saskatoon with friends and then the remainder of the weekend on the farm with my family. I live a charmed life, this weekend convinced me of it completely.

Bonne fete Canada!

Snow? Nope. Poplar fluff is everywhere still.

The tiger lilies at home are HUGE!

Sod as far as the eye can see

Sassy loved to play bocce with Mom and I

Sassy thought the bocce balls were for her only!

Happy Father's Day dad

This weekend was Father's Day and there's no other place on the planet I wanted to be then back home in Saskatchewan to be with my dad.

The whole family got together, Mother Nature cooperated with gorgeous weather and we spent Saturday in the backyard, around the fire pit with dad's new bush pie makers, cooking, laughing and enjoying everyone's company.

Dad you're the best - always there when I need advice, to talk politics or for the best hugs. Being home with everyone was as close to a perfect weekend as I could ask.

 Bush pies!

 My bestie Sassy

The sun had this crazy halo going on

Music under a wide Open Sky....

Apologies for blogging so infrequently lately. I thought that going school-free for the summer would free up my time but sadly I'm even busier it feels. I really can't complain though, getting out and about around Edmonton has been a great trade off for my studies so far.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of volunteering for the 3rd annual Open Sky Music Festival in Edmonton. I may have had a connection through my roommate and PR star Natalie Harper but it was just the perfect kind of event to get me out of the house and kick off my summer.

Boasting the reggae, surf-rock and alternative sounds of groups such as The Wailers, Shane Philip, The Whytes, Five Alarm Funk, Souljah Fyah and others (see here), the weekend, while rainy, was still a great chance to get out and dance. The best part of the weekend was getting the opportunity to meet all of the local and international artists one-on-one and see how humble and real they all were.

I've got a few pics and videos posted but it was hands-down one of the best weekends I've had in a long time. Count me in for next year!

 Scott Cook & The Long Weekends

 Five Alarm Funk

 

  Micheal Bernard Fitzgerald

 

Lesley Pelletier

 

 The Wyhtes

 The Wailers

 

 Chali 2na

 Five Alarm Funk

 Kim Churchill

Just this...

Friday was the beginning of the rest of my summer. I bade my last MACT paper goodbye around lunchtime and by supper I was ready to live again. Its funny how much you sacrifice over the course of a year. For me I gave up a lot of social get-togethers and contact with friends, all for the sake of school.

So Saturday I slept in. I had lunch with friends. I went to a BBQ with more friends. We sat around the fire, guitars in hand and sang. Sunday was much the same but I got my hands dirty and planted the flower bed out front. 

This is exactly where I want to be and what I want to be doing this summer. Just this.....and nothing else. 

May long shenanigans with the girls!

Hot on the heels of wrapping my second MACT spring institute came another annual tradition in my life - May long weekend with "the girls".

Context for those new to my blog, each May long I get together with my younger sister and two other girls as we all used to be English teachers in South Korea. We each take turns hosting a May long weekend and this year it was my turn.

True to form there was a lot of laughter over the weekend. We all try to stay in touch pretty regularly but between work, school, kids, families and distance it isn't always easy to get the four of us together.

Highlights from this year include: the never-ending marathon of Criminal Minds (so soothing for my school frazzled brain), people watching along Whyte Avenue and wardrobe malfunctions at Cook County Saloon (not us thankfully).

Thank you always Mel, Kelly and Meg for traveling and for making the weekend fun. Next year it's back to Saskatchewan!

And then it was over (MACT 2012)

We all knew it was going to happen sooner or later but this year it just seemed to happen sooner. After three weeks of intense highs, lows, laughter, tears, thought provoking conversations, a-ha moments and plenty of wine and beer, MACT spring institute ended.

Thank you Ann Curry and Kate Milberry for sharing your expertise, stories and advice on research and social networking - you made the three weeks so amazing. Thank you to each and every one of my classmates - you have made the experience so much fun along the way and I count you all as my family now.

Congratulations to all of the 2011 cohort as we take off for the summer and get re-energized to tackle our final projects in the fall. To cohort 2012 we wish you luck and I for one look forward to seeing you again next spring to discuss your research posters with you!

** Special thank you to Greg for the fabulous photos taken at Yellowhead Brewery on Friday.

My research and life for the next year

Anonymous MACT 2011

Cohort 2011 - miss you already!

Can social media spark and maintain the next revolution?

In his article Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted, Malcolm Gladwell probes the emergence of Twitter and Facebook as tools to mobilize the masses for protest. He believes that really Twitter and Facebook are just tools and they can not create or start revolution like the organized sit-ins in the Deep South of the U.S.A. in the 1960s.

An interesting discussion erupted in class today when we discussed this article, one that everyone seemed to participate in. At first when I read this article I went back to look at the date on this article ~ because I felt that it was written before the Occupy movement. I was right (it was written in 2010), and while Gladwell wasn't privy to some of the events that happened this past year, I understand what message he was trying to convey in this article.

Yes social networks have a plethora of tools to choose from today to help stay in touch. And yes these tools have been used to motivate the public to join in something that they believe in. Gladwell argues that these "revolutions" or social movements that are organized via Facebook or Twitter have no lasting impact unlike Rosa Parks sitting at the front of the bus.

This is where I beg to differ - I think that while the tools may have changed, the reasons for being involved are still the same. In fact my classmate Amanda put it best, "It's not about the social tools, it's about the social movement. The reasons why people want to be a part of something have never changed." I agree with her - the desire to be involved in something that will make a difference has always been a part of people's DNA. Today we just have different ways to mobilize and educate people.

I see where you're coming from Mr. Gladwell but I don't agree with what you're saying.